STUDYING INEQUALITY IN INCOME DISTRIBUTION OF SINGLE-PERSON HOUSEHOLDS IN FOUR DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

The increasing frequency of single-person households has become a major economic phenomenon, and is likely to become an important political force. This paper focuses on differences related to inequality of income distribution among single-person households in Europe's four largest economies, i.e. France, Germany, Italy and the U.K. Income distribution was modeled in terms of individual characteristics using a parametric model with heterogeneous model parameters. Poverty differences were also broken down using the results of Biewen and Jenkins (2005 ) in order to understand the relationship between poverty and individual characteristics among countries.     

The shadow economy beyond European public governance

The purpose of this paper is to try to analyze the Shadow Economy (SE) and its determinants by means of the Structural Equation Model (SEM)-Partial Least Squares (PLS). The overall topic of the SEM-PLS approach is controversially debated in the literature. In the past decades, the focus on the SE has increased and the range in the estimated size of this phenomenon is very divergent. By examining the effects of a set of indicators, economic theory often emphasizes the need for lower taxes and less regulation, but many other factors, such as administrative quality, are frequently neglected. Policy implications are discussed. Estimates for the SE as a percentage of GDP can be calculated and European countries are clustered according to the obtained results.